A gentle travelblog recording the adventures and peregrinations of two humans and their greyhound companions, utilising various modes of transport including two narrowboats, a motorhome and a people/dog carrier

10 June 2008

As someone who has had to cope while their lavatory has sat on the towpath being fixed, I sympathise with Andy on Khayamanzi who is suffering a little bit of toilet trouble. Despite Lee Sanitation’s advice, Andy is still not flushed with success and has started eyeing up his brother Steve’s vacuum style lav. Isn’t that the 11th Commandment – thou shalt not covet thy brother’s bog?

In terms of cost per square inch, our smallest room is probably the most expensive part of the boat. I can’t remember how we ended up with this particular model – or indeed ended up paying so much money, yikes! - but it’s got a little flush handle and is controlled by a circuit board. Yes, it’s true, folks, we do computerised wees. The brilliant thing about it, though, is that it uses about a thimble of water per flush – useful when you consider our holding tank’s about the size of a Lilliputian milk bottle. And this loo also proves that someone at manufacturer Dometic has a sense of humour: the brand name is ‘Magnum Opus’, which we are reminded – most mornings – translates into Big Job.

2 comments:

John
said...

Reading this made my day, my ribs still hurt. On alacrity there is a rule that whoever blocks the loo unblocks it.I have to say that in 19 years It has only been blocked once when a little girl used kleenex high strength tissues instead of loo roll and stalled the macerator.It took three hours to take it apart and unwind the tissue.I did the repair on the towpath much to the disgust of passers by.

Glad it made you smile. I can't tell you how glad I was when the Little Chef opened its doors in the morning. I was eyeing up my red bucket and thinking, I really don't want to have to do anything remotely substantial in there. One blockage in 19 years? That's pretty good going - we blocked the original macerator loo on the second day of ownership. I'm pleased to say that the Vacuflush is more than up to the biggest jobs.